Widdershins

De-evolution and the Politics of Technology

At ToorCon 2K, I gave the
keynote talk entitled "The Future of Hacking". In it I included a lot of
what you might call non-technical information, touching on politics and
hacker motivations.

After seeing a talk by RFP at Black Hat Asia that had a lot of nice
graphics, for DefCon 9 I decided to
prepare something a little different than my usual technical discussion.
There were ideas and theories that had been bouncing around in my head for
quite a while. I wouldn't call them controversial, but the talk was
somewhat of a departure from my usual discussions, and basically took off
from the Toorcon talk.

For one thing, I wasn't presenting anything technical, but political. To
summarize, I did a talk regarding the relationship between the fall of the
nation state, the rise of the transnational state, the assault on the
fragile online freedoms we have via knee-jerk legislation, and the
ever-evolving role of the hacker. Thrown in for good measure was a good
dose of religious symbolism (drawn from my Wiccan beliefs), a musical
soundtrack that played during the entire talk, and
better-than-my-usual-boring-powerpoint graphics -- all designed to allow
for a presentation that tried to evoke much more than depict.

For ToorCon 2001, my keynote was an
expanded version of the DefCon talk with a fairly humorous story about a
confrontation I had with the NSA at DefCon after that talk.

Reactions From DefCon:

The reaction far exceeded my expectations. I was prepared to have people
walk out, yell obscenities, and explain to me in no uncertain terms that I
was completely off base and totally nuts. Instead I got a receptive
audience who was willing to listen and be challenged by a more cerebral
than technical talk than they expected.

Of course, not all of the comments I received were positive, and in fact
if I had received nothing but positive comments I would have been worried.
But the comments from people were honest, and at least presented to me in
a very positive manner.

One person told me I was unduly paranoid, and should relax. That's fine.
I'll accept that any day. But I'd rather be paranoid and wrong than
ignorant, happy, and right. Based upon some conversations with several NSA
employees at the con I'd say I was right on the money on the more paranoid
parts anyway.

Another person suggested that because I am such a part of the machine (I
work for a commercial security software company who benefits from
"cybersteria", a phrase coined by Lewis Koch), I was not the best choice
to deliver the message I delivered. I did offer a disclaimer during my
talk regarding this, but the best way I can explain it is that I have a
"day job", but personal political convictions that are at odds with my
employers'. However, that is not unusual, and my employer is at least
understanding enough to know and recognize that difference in its
employees.

Yet another sugested I use "class", as in the differences between the rich
and the poor, or better yet between the ruling elite and the working
classes. I actually had material on that, but to do that subject justice I
would have had to lengthen the talk substantially.

Reactions From ToorCon:

Again reactions from ToorCon were very positive. One of the most
interesting comments I received from someone was that a year ago they
would have thought the entire thing paraniod delusional bullshit, but now
they realize it is possibly true, particularly the parts involving ongoing
intrusion by the government into our online rights.

There are a lot of people to thank and give credit for. This was not the
work of an individual. I received support and help from peers who need to
be thanked for their work. Thanks for direct help with the talks:

Sioda an Cailleach - One of the Attrition folks. She was an immense
help, provided numerous links, pointers to articles, and important
insights.

T from NMRC assisted in graphic choice that helped evoke mood.

HellNBak and Cask3t of NMRC provided technical assistance.

jrandom of NMRC, who allowed me to bounce ideas off of him and helped
me with perspective during the final writing phases.

HRH Grave Clovia Terre - My wife. She put up with a lot from me while
I prepared this talk. I love you, babe.

And thanks for inspiration and help:

Attrition - You folks have
always set a good example and high standard, whether it is through Errata
or your rants.

Rain Forest Puppy - A
great friend, and the guy who accidently got me to do this talk by
presenting high quality talks himself (which pissed me off to do something
halfway decent).

Richard Thieme - Another
great friend, his public writings and private email have influenced me on
many levels. My fave public speaker.

Cult of the Dead Cow - A
great bunch of guys who impressed everyone this year with an excellent
panel on TRUE hacktivism this year at DefCon. We can't wait for
Peekabooty, but are willing to wait since it has to work right the first
time. Moo.

Lewis Koch - A journalist who is not an asshole. Unfortunately that
makes him a minority.

Jennifer Grannick - Defense attorney extraordinaire. She alerted me
to Patrick Ball's work, and was a great sounding board the day before my
talk.

Jim Marrs - Though we've only
communicated in email, he's a wonderful author whose well-researched
conspiracy, UFO, and secret society books are good reading for any hacker.
Whether you believe every word or not isn't as important as reading them
and challenging yourself.